Excerpts from a “We the People” article by Steven Stehr, professor of public policy and public service at Washington State University
“We the People” is one of the best-known phrases in the American political lexicon. They are the first three words of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and propose that the “people” should be the driving force behind what government does or doesn’t do.
When the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United vs. FEC (2010) that corporations have a First Amendment right to make independent expenditures in political campaigns, the definition of personhood for political purposes was expanded again. Not all changes to voting laws have been inclusive. For example, in 2013 the Supreme Court struck down some portions of the Voting Rights Act. As the U.S. Congress considers the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 and a number of states debate the topic of voting rights, it is clear that the question of the meaning of “We the People” is far from settled.
These are not policy differences, which might be open to bargaining and negotiation. Rather, it represents an existential divide in which each side sincerely believes that the other is trying to destroy America.